“Suspended movement, tense body, moment of absolute. This young man in extension prepares to throw the discus. To celebrate this Olympic discipline, one of the five of ancient origin, César Malfi has chosen the emblematic discus thrower of the Greek sculptor Myron, paragon of athletic and virile beauty. Adapting it to the verticality of the wall, he offers us an unusual angle of view for a renewed, dynamic, kinetic reading.

Using flat tints of color, the urban artist breaks down his gestures to accentuate their movement. The bust, pelvis and legs then undergo a revolution supported by color. The ancient statue comes to life. The realism of the sculpted body, spray-painted, is thus magnified by the contrast of these cut-out sections of color. It is then that the features of a face appear, imbued with another dimension. Clean and naive, simple and incisive, they evoke the softness of a feminine face that comes to rest in filigree alongside this marble anatomy. A tutelary presence or simply a friend. This time abandoning the spray can for the brush, César thus paradoxically reconnects with his first line, graffiti, at the origin of his muralist passion. Inherited from his elders, Matisse but especially Léger, this linear drawing comes to temporize the volume of the statuary, to bring a face to this body, a spirit to this force. But also a modernity to this classicism.

In a syncretic attempt, the artist confronts in order to better reconcile them the organic and geometry, volume and flatness, line and color, drawing and sculpture, painting and architecture… In doing so, he advocates a harmony between the genres, bringing a feminine presence to sports games originally reserved for men, and thus renews the ancient concept of Kalos Kagathos where the body and the mind move in concert.”

Cyrille Gouyette